Remember about a year ago when Kobe Bryant fired back at a trash-talking Nick Young, the entire Lakers squad, and team GM Mitch Kupchak in practice that they were "soft?" Your initial reaction was likely "Well, that's just Kobe being Kobe."
Now the Black Mamba has vindication from the team's head coach Byron Scott, who repeated the same rhetoric from Bryant, after their matador-style defense cost them 80 points given up in the paint last night versus the Sacramento Kings.
The final score was 132-114, and the Lakers have given up 244 points in their first two games of the season. For one, it doesn't look like their will be winning a ring this year. And two, they ranked in as 29th out of the 30 total NBA franchises in defensive efficiency going into last season.
"We just sucked," Scott said of his team's defense. "Simple as that. I’ve never seen 80 points in the paint in a game." He later added, “Again, we started off real soft. They started off real aggressive. They came up, they picked us up 94 feet. We were careless with the ball. From that point on, it seemed to go downhill.”
Looks like Nick Young needs to leave all that dabbing alone, and get The Lake Show up to speed because they still look like The Late Show on defense. The Lakers are still holding a donut at 0-2.
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[via NBC Sports]
